The BEST Oven-Baked BBQ Chicken Recipe

Hey, PBJ’s! Ya boy Jay is back with another delicious recipe I know you’re gonna love. This one yall are going to be excited about because ya’ll been requesting it for quite some time.

Oven baked BBQ chicken, yes, the recipe you all been asking for is finally complete. After years of yall asking for this recipe and weeks of me trying to perfect it, I finally delivered on my promise.

My subscribers fell in love with my BBQ chicken way back in 2014! I uploaded a bbq chicken recipe that year and became very intrigued by how I made it for some reason.

I was a little confused because after several request to create a recipe for it, I thought, “Why do they want a BBQ chicken recipe so bad”.

I just didnt think people loved BBQ chicken so much or would care so much to get a recipe for. To my surprise it was one of my most requested so I had to get to it.

As I’ve said many times before, I never used measurements. So when I originally did cooking tutorials on YouTube from 2014-2016, I just showed people how things were made.

I didn’t have a website til 2017 and never had recipes for the things I made. Still dto this day, im trying to create an actual recipe for all of those old food videos I posted years ago.

I started off on youtube catering to people who already knew how to cook and just wanted to see different ways to make things.I never wasted time measuring how much of this or that I was using.

I wasn’t raised that way. Lol! My grandparents who I learned from always gave things a taste test to determine if it were right. They were also very experienced so they just used their eyes.

But I understand that having an actual recipe with precise amounts of ingredients and step by step instructions prevents guess work and makes it easier for everybody to make a delicious dish, and make it just as good everytime.

My Nana, Alice Mae Loved My BBQ Chicken

Speaking of, 2014… I remember exactly what I did after uploading that bba chicken tutorial to youtube. I had done the video at night and was planning to pay my nana, Alice Mae a visit the next day.

I would always visit my nana and often spend a night from 2011-2017. That was something I always did during my 20s because I loved her company. Nana was something else, she wasnt your ordinary nana.

If I had to describe her I’d call her Madea, because she always had something slick to say, aint take no ish, and could throw jokes with the best of them. Lol!

But as many of you who frequent my site know, she and her daughter Gewn, who is my grandma, are greatly responsible for teaching me how to cook.

So whenever I have her try my food, and she gives me a thumbs up, I know I did it right. I had some leftover bbq chicken I took me with me to her house.

By this time she didnt do too much cooking she was in her mid 80s and would mainly eat tv dinners or whatever the family would drop off at the house.

So whenever I’d go I would always make sure to bring some food for her and myself. I remember my aunt Bev telling me how much she loved my BBQ chicken. Like many of my subscribers, she loved her some bbq.

So I made sure to set some aside for her and when she tried it so look at me and shook her her and said, “UHn uhn uhn uhn UHN”! LMBO! Everyone in our family know that was old folks thing.

If they did that they were either impressed by something or in disbelief!! Lol! She would always say, “Jarnell how you make this chicken” and what you put in this”!

I think it was the flavor from the onions and peppers and the herbs I used that was unique to her and that she loved so much.

It means a lot as a Chef when someone compliments your food and really enjoys it. It means even more when it comes from the person you learned from, especially when they’re a tough critic.

She’s not the easiest to please, not just when it comes to food but in general. So I knew I did something right, but like my subs said, I just had to put numbers to it.

So let me get into exact what you need to get this recipe done.

Ingredients you’ll need:

• Meat: You’re going to need 4 lbs of chicken. You can just use thighs like I did for the original recipe or a mix of thighs legs and wings.
• Vegetable add-ins: Yellow onions and Green bell peppers.
• Condiments: I like to use honey or sweet n spicy bbq sauce. Sometimes I throw in a pinch of liquid smoke for that grilled flavor but that’s optional.
• Fat: I like to use a little bit of Butter but if you want to go the healthier route, omit it.
• Liquids: Chicken Broth and Liquid Smoke. Liquid smoke gives the chicken a grilled taste and is completely optional.
• Seasonings: Salt, Garlic Powder, Onion Powder, Italian seasoning, Thyme, and Black Pepper.
• Liquids: Chicken broth! Try to find low-sodium broth and if you dont have any on hand using a splash of water in it’s place is just fine.

Cooking utensils you’ll need:

• Casserole Dish: You’re going to need a casserole dish to bake the bbq chicken in.
• Measuring Cups: Use a measuring cup to accurately measure the BBQ sauce and add-ins.
• Measuring Spoons: Measuring spoons are great for accurately measuring the seasonings.

Cooking time and temperature

The key to tender juicy baked bbq chicken is cooking it at the right temperature for the right amount of time. I bake my chicken for 2 hours at 350 F.

I don’t typically cover my chicken with aluminum foil but it doesn’t hurt too if you want to get it extra tender. Covering it is completely unnecessary however, because chicken is already a pretty tender meat.

It’s not tough like turkey, steak, or pork, which requires the assistance of aluminum foil for tenderness. So whether you want to add aluminum foil is up to you.

I like my chicken to brown and get a little crisp before adding the bbq sauce I dont waste time covering it. It will get more then tender as it bakes in that bubbling bbq sauce.

Vegetable Add-ins

Now, you may look at the ingredients and wonder why I add green peppers and onions to my chicken. It’s funny how I decided to start using them. They were a last additiona to this recipe.

Well one day I was making BBQ chicken and potato salad. I had a handful of chopped onions and peppers leftover from the potato salad I had just made.

There were only a little leftover so I thought it would be dumb to wrap them and store them in the refrigerator just for them to go bad in a week. It’s not everyday I use peppers and onions and there were such a small amount left.

So I just decided to throw em in with the chicken instead of storing them in the fridge. Once I tasted the chicken, I was amazed at the effect such a small amount of onions and peppers had on the dish.

It gave the bbq chicken that extra umph it needed and yea I never looked back. I fell in love with the flavor it gave the dish and I’ve been adding onions and peppers to my baked chicken ever since.

Recent 2026 story: The onions and peppers are optional though so you can omit it if you want. I recently bought some to my aunts 60th birthday party and one of the guest asked, “Are those green things celery?”

She was referring to the small pieces of chopped peppers she saw floating in the bbq sauce. I said, “No those are bell peppers”, and she replied “Oh I can taste it subtely, it gives it something special.”

One of my aunts co-workers stated how good the bbq sauce was. I heard him say, “This sauce is delicious. I wonder what he put in this”. I thought to myself, “Ha, my Nana asked the same question”.

BBQ Sauce

Speaking of BBQ sauce, I like to use Sweet Baby Ray’s Sweet n Spicy BBQ sauce because of its thickness, color, and richness. Sometimes I go with Kraft’s Honey BBQ.

Feel free to use your favorite store-bought sauce or homemade BBQ. No matter the brand, I like to stick with honey or sweet n spicy.

Why not original BBQ sauce? Listen, you can’t go wrong with original BBQ sauce and what kind of BBQ sauce you use is totally up to you. Original bbq sauce is the best option if you’re making this for a big gathering.

But the key to good food is layering it with different flavors. And since sweet n spicy BBQ consists of 2 flavors that are perfectly made for each other, it’s the best choice of BBQ sauce to me.

But again, feel free to use whatever kind you like best. If you can’t find any honey BBQ sauce, but have some original BBQ sauce on hand, just combine the BBQ sauce with 1/4 cup of honey.

When to add the BBQ sauce

Some people like to bake the chicken in bbq sauce because they think that will some how infuse the chicken with a bbq flavor or make the flavor richer.

I use to do this myself and got the idea from my aunt Beverly! You can see me adding the bbq sauce to the chicken before It even bakes here in this video.

She would poke holes in her chicken, smother it with BBQ sauce while raw and uncooked, and let it go until done. Here’s why I prefer to add the BBQ sauce last.

• I may want to brown my chicken first. It’s a good way to tell when it’s almost done.
• Baking the BBQ sauce for almost two almost can scorch the BBQ leaving you with burnt tasting BBQ chicken.
• I add the BBQ sauce last and let it bake for 20-30 minutes to thicken the BBQ sauce and help it stick.

Prepping the Chicken

There’s two steps to the prepping process. First thing we’re going to do is remove the excess fat and skin and afterwards, soak the chicken in one of the cleaning solutions below. 

Removing the excess skin and fat

• Thighs and drumsticks have clear slime below the skin. Lift the skin and make sure to remove every last piece of that slime. You can do this with your hands.
• You sometimes find a yellow piece at the bottom of chicken legs aka drumsticks. You want to peel that off if possible. It can be stubborn but peel off however much you can.
• When it comes to thighs, you will find slime under the skin and on the other side. You’ll also fine thin and thick lines of yellow fat near the bone and by the edge of the thigh. Use a knife and just dig it out and scrape off the yellow fat.
• When it comes to the SKIN, you can sometimes find a lot of excess dangling skin on thighs and drumsticks. You don’t want to remove all the skin just the excess skin. You’ll be able to tell which part needs to be removed.
• If you’re using wings, you may find dangling skin by the drum. Slice off that dangling excess skin and burn any hairs or you might see.

Cleaning Solutions

Below are a few cleaning solutions you can use to clean your chicken. I always use the same ratio. 2 tbs of solution per quart of water.

• Salt water: You can soak the chicken in salt water for 10-15 minutes. Sort of scrub the chicken with your hands and then rinse well. This is a popular cleaning solution used here in the states. Make sure not to soak the chicken for too long, just 15-20 minutes tops!
• Vinegar water: Vinegar water is another popular cleaning solution commonly used to clean vegetables and meat.
• Lemon/Lime water: This combination is popular in the Caribbean. This solution can also help to lighten the chicken, so this is a great option if you have old chicken that is a little grey and not as pink in color.

Serving suggestions:

These are the perfect vegetable dishes to go with BBQ chicken. All vegetables taste great with chicken but these are some of my favorite vegetable recipes.

What about a salad for a side dish? No salad is better served with bbq chicken than Potato and Macaroni salad. If you want an healthier option for salad, check out my non-mayo salad below.

Soul Food Green Beans

Delicious Collard Greens

Sweet Buttery Corn

Southern Potato Salad

Deli-Style Macaroni Salad

Zesty Italian Pasta Salad

Storage and reheating

• How to store it: Sit the chicken in a dish similar to a Tupperware bowl and seal it tightly with a lid, plastic wrap, or aluminum foil, then store it in the refrigerator.
• How to freeze it: To preserve chicken for a long time, sit in the freezer but sit in a ziploc bag and make sure it’s tightly sealed to prevent freezer burn.
• How to reheat: To reheat chicken, you can either reheat it in the microwave, or you can place it in a casserole dish and bake it in the oven.

Frequently Asked Questions

• How long does the chicken last? It can last up to 5-7 days if left in the refrigerator and properly sealed but I always recommend eating food within 3 days because that’s when it taste best.
• How to double the recipe? To double the recipe, just double all the ingredients and cook it the same.

But enough with the yapping, give this BBQ chicken a shot and let me know how ya like it. If my nana enjoyed it I know for sure yall will. Also, subscribe to receive notifications everytime I post a new recipe.

Enjoy, later!

PBJ~

Print